How did my ex-husband's Social Security end up lower than mine with his farming and multiple job history?

Very common situation! A lot of farmers operate as self-employed and sometimes don't report all their income properly or minimize what they report to reduce self-employment taxes. Each quarter you don't pay into Social Security affects your benefit calculation. Also, if he worked as an independent contractor for those other jobs rather than as an employee, he might have had gaps in his SS contributions. One thing to check - make sure the SSA is looking at the right person. I've seen cases where they pull up the wrong ex-spouse's record.

Farmers absolutely get Social Security, BUT only if they pay in properly. My dad was a farmer and he made sure to report everything correctly so he'd have a decent retirement. Not everyone does that. Some years when money was tight, he would underreport to save on those self-employment taxes. It caught up with him later when his benefit was lower than expected.

Actually there's something called the Social Security Earnings Test that might explain this. The SSA calculates your benefit based on your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. If someone has fewer than 35 years of reported earnings, they'll have years of ZERO in their calculation. So even if your ex had some high-earning years as an electrician or trucker, if he had many years with unreported or under-reported farm income, those zeros and low years would bring down his average significantly. Meanwhile, your 12 years of consistent work might have higher indexed values than you realize.

DID U ACTUALLY TALK TO A REAL PERSON AT SSA???? I've been trying for WEEKS!!!!! All I get is the stupid recording and then it hangs up on me after 2 hours on hold!!!!! HOW did you manage to talk to a actual person???? I need to check on my application status and I CANNOT get through to anyone!!!!

There's something no one has mentioned yet - did your ex-husband ever work for a state or local government that had their own pension system? If so, he might be affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) which would reduce his Social Security benefit. This happens to a lot of people who worked part of their career in jobs not covered by Social Security.

Wait, something else to consider - is it possible your ex intentionally kept his income low ON PAPER but was actually earning more? My brother-in-law did something similar - lots of barter, cash payments, etc. Looked great for taxes but terrible for Social Security later! And if he was self-employed as a farmer he paid both parts of SS tax (employer AND employee portions) which is 15.3% total - many self-employed folks try to minimize that however they can.

To actually answer your main question - you should take whichever benefit is higher. If your own benefit is higher than 50% of your ex's, take your own. If 50% of his is higher than your own, take the spousal benefit. The SSA should actually give you the higher amount automatically if you were married for at least 10 years before divorcing. Based on what you've shared, it sounds like your own benefit is the higher one. Just remember that taking your benefit doesn't affect his at all - he'll still get whatever he's entitled to regardless of what you claim.

One more thing to keep in mind - since you're turning 66 in three months, you're reaching your Full Retirement Age (FRA). This is actually perfect timing because you can claim your full benefit without any early retirement reductions. If you had claimed earlier, your benefit would have been permanently reduced. Also, even though you're choosing your own benefit over the ex-spouse benefit now, you might want to check back in a few years. If your ex-husband passes away before you do, you could potentially switch to a survivor benefit based on his record, which would be 100% of his benefit amount instead of just the 50% spousal amount. Just something to keep in the back of your mind for future planning. The SSA agent should have explained all this to you, but sometimes they rush through the details. Make sure you get everything in writing when you file!