: If I leave my job, what happens to my flexible spending account? I am about to decide how much money to set aside for my 2013 Flexible Spending Account (FSA). (The max this year is 00.) But I am wondering what happens

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A) Q1) No, you beat the system, you benefit from flip side of 'use it or lose it'
Q2) You need to ask, they may have a /week limit, or they may divide the amount you wish by remaining time in year. They may also not let you start till next enrollment period.

B) Q1) No, in fact, you just lost 0 that you deposited but didn't spend.
Q2) You missed the opportunity to spend an extra 00 as well, but the loss was opportunity not pocket.
Q3) Same as Q2 above, ask them.

C) These accounts are not coupled. I'd change the law to do so, however, I am not a congressman.

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Edit: Let's forget about Wikipedia. From the horse's mouth:

The cafeteria plan rules require that a health FSA provide uniform coverage throughout the
coverage period (which is the period when the employee is covered by the plan). See Proposed
Treasury Regulations Section 1.125-5(d). Under the uniform coverage rules, the maximum amount
of reimbursement from a health FSA must be available at all times during the coverage period. This
means that the employee’s entire health FSA election is available from the first day of the plan year
to reimburse qualified medical expenses incurred during the coverage period. The cafeteria plan
may not, therefore, base its reimbursements to an employee on what that employee may have
contributed up to any particular date, such as the date the employee is laid-off or terminated. Thus,
if an employee’s reimbursements from the health FSA exceed his contributions to the health FSA at
the time of lay-off or termination, the employer cannot recoup the difference from the employee.

(emphasis added)
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/1012060.pdf

Uniform Coverage Rule

The IRS has required that “health FSAS must qualify as accident or health plans. This means
that, in general, while the health coverage under the FSA need not be provided through a
commercial insurance contract, health FSAS must exhibit the risk-shifting and risk-distribution
characteristics of insurance.” This concept has led to the “uniform coverage” rule.

The uniform­coverage rule requires that the maximum amount of an employee’s projected
elective contributions to a health FSA must be available from the first day of the plan year to
reimburse the employee’s qualified medical expenses, regardless of the amount actually
contributed to the plan at the time that reimbursement is sought.

Citing proposed Treasury Regulations Section the IRS General Counsel has
determined that:

“Under the uniform coverage rules, the maximum amount of reimbursement from
a health FSA must be available at all times during the coverage period. The
cafeteria plan may not, therefore, base its reimbursements to an employee on what
that employee may have contributed up to any particular date, such as the date the
employee is laid-off or terminated. Thus, if an employee’s reimbursements from
the health FSA exceed his contributions to the health FSA at the time of or
termination, the employer cannot recoup the difference from the employee.”

This rule is unfair and also constitutes a disincentive to establishing FSAS because of the
exposure to out-of pocket expenditures arising from employees who leave the company.

NSBA believes that the uniform coverage rule should also be revised if the or lose-
it rule is changed. Revising the use-it or lose-it rule while leaving the uniform coverage rule unchanged will introduce an inappropriate asymmetry to FSAS. An employer should
be allowed to deduct any negative amount arising from insuftîcient employee
contributions from a terminating partieipant’s last paycheck.

www.ecfc.org/files/legislative-news/NSBA_(David_Burton).pdf
(emphasis added)

Now, that's some fresh bitterness for you right there. (Dated August 17, 2012)

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Scenario A:

Collected 00; yet to be collected 00; spent 00.
The company will not collect the extra 00. They fund it from the money that people forfeit in other years.
You can open a FSA with the new company for 0. This would fall under the life event exemption regarding changes to plans. Most companies will allow a new employee to start an FSA in the middle of the year.

Scenario B:

Collected 00; yet to be collected 00; spent 0.
The company will not try and collect the extra 00. They will have made a profit of 0 on you this year.
Spend all that you can before the last day of work. Buy glasses, look at the rule regarding nonprescription items.
You can open a FSA with the new company for at least 0 and maybe as much as 00. This would fall under the life event exemption regarding changes to plans.
You might not want to put the entire 00 into the new plan if you bunched up expenses to minimize losses with company A.

Scenario C:

Collected 00; yet to be collected 00; spent 0. Company A sends money to company B.
Not going to happen. It might happen if company A and B were merging, or one was buying the other, or if one was a subsidiary of the other. Otherwise why would Company send 0 in profits to company B.
This now changes to scenario B.

I have been in both scenario A and scenario B. The new companies had no problem with me opening an FSA under their program.