Employed and self employed paying into private now joined workplace but under tax on workplace

Bugster123

Ok long title .
basically I’m employed and self employed.  

I have an old private pension(30 years) that I began paying back into several years ago(went back to work after kids part time and I could basically pay into it)  do pay into it and receive tax relief on it which they claim .  It’s an old pension with quite a high charge but has with profits I’d lose if I moved it.
now I am also employed(have been both for years but didn’t realise I could ask to join workplace)  and will earn just under £10000 with them  next month so after looking around for something better than above , knowing nothing about pensions I asked to join the workplace pension.
my dilemma is… I have asked to pay in more than the % that will be taken but as it’s under £12500 I won’t receive tax relief on it.  I am a tax payer which I pay on my tax return.
so is there any way of doing it?  My tax code is all on my employed wage as I didn’t realise you can split with self employed( I found something saying you can?)
now I could split it asking for the employed to be lower than my employed wage which will mean I’ll pay tax on it.  Now I’ve googled and googled and can’t find anything that really says I can do this(have it less than I earn , is it legal?) and I don’t really know why you would as it makes no difference on a tax return as it’s all put down.
or do I just up the payment in my old private pension and the basic will be taken off my pay .  I know I’ll get employer contributions but if I get tax relief on my extra I want to pay it will be more.
hope this makes sense 

Albermarle

You have to be clear on one point.
How much you pay in tax ( or don't pay) and what your personal allowance is etc. , is not relevant to how much tax relief you get on pension contributions. 
The rule is that you can get tax relief on your gross earnings.
So if you earn £20K , you can can add £16K and get £4K tax relief, regardless of how much tax you actually pay.

However with workplace contributions, there are different ways you can contribute, depending on how your employer organises it . This can sometimes cause a problem with lower earners.

So first you need to find out how your employer organises your contributions. There are three ways.
Out of your already taxed pay 
Before your pay is taxed 
By salary sacrifice.

p00hsticks

I think you may be worrying unnecessarily, although hopefully others will come along to confirm it.
My understanding is that you'll automatically get tax relief on a workplace pension even if you don't actually pay tax, up to the limit of how much you actually earn.  

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Only if the scheme operated RAS.

One or two auto enrolment providers use net pay which could be a problem for the op.

xylophone

If you are in a scheme which operates "relief at source", you will get tax relief even if you do not earn enough to pay tax.

For example, John Brown is aged under 75 and his only income comes from his part time job.

He earns £12,000 a year.

He may  make a net contribution of up to £9,600 to a pension scheme operating RAS and the pension provider will claim tax relief of up to £2400 and add it to his pension. 

If a person does not earn enough to pay tax and  his workplace pension operates "net pay", the situation is different.

See https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/tax-basics/do-i-have-join-pension-scheme/do-you-know-how-tax-relief-your-pension

However, the government intends to address this issue.

See

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/low-earners-anomaly-pensions-relief-relating-to-net-pay-arrangements/pensions-relief-relating-to-net-pay-arrangements