There is only one situation in which a mixed age couple have a working age applicable amount. That is where their HB would have terminated under the mixed age couple rules, or a new HB claim would have been rejected, between 2019 and 2021 but they were allowed to claim/remain on HB through the SDP gateway. The drafting of Article 8 of the No 31 Order appears to provide for those couples to have a working age applicable amount in the event that they had too much income to get ESA(ir) at the point when the SDP gateway “bit”.
I don’t think this applies to your couple though: as a transitionally protected MAC getting pension age HB since May 2019, nothing has happened to them that would have triggered reliance on the SDP gateway between 2019 and 2021, so they should continue with a pensioner applicable amount. The fact that they probably have an SDP is irrelevant: Article 8 was only engaged when an HB termination/rejection would otherwise have arisen before January 2021.
