u/Physical-Term-1766

I’m thinking about writing a personal statement for my mental health claim and just wanted to get some opinions from people who have done one before.

A lot of what I went through was never documented while I was in, including an SA that happened during deployment. It was a really difficult topic for me to talk about at the time, so I never really opened up about it or got it documented.

Do you think writing a personal statement explaining what happened, when my mental health started getting worse, and how it still affects me now would actually help my claim?

Would appreciate hearing anyone’s experience, especially if you also didn’t have much documentation from service.

I recently moved from a GS-9 Step 4 position to a GS-11 Step 1 position. I've been a GS11 for 3 months.

I’m now considering returning to my previous agency in a GS-9 position. I understand I don’t qualify for grade retention because I haven’t served 52 consecutive weeks at the higher grade.

My question is: Can my current GS-11 Step 1 salary still be used as my Highest Previous Rate under the Maximum Payable Rate rule when HR sets my GS-9 salary? Or would I automatically return to GS-9 Step 4?

Has anyone gone through something similar or know how 5 CFR 531.221–531.223 would apply here? Thank you in advance.