To satisfy the basic rules for employment and support allowance (ESA), you must be aged at least 16, but under pension age (see here). It is your age as the claimant that is relevant, not the age of your partner. However, if you are already getting income-related ESA and are, or become, a member of a ‘mixed-age couple’ (ie, you have reached pension age but your partner has not) and you are both ‘frontier workers’, you are prevented from claiming universal credit (see here), and your income-related ESA continues even though you have reached pension age.1Art 8 WRA(No.31)O; HB Circular A9/2019