Pay my debts? Lay off! (9)
I believe the answer is:
discharge
'lay off' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'pay my debts?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'pay' could be 'charge' (charging is a kind of paying) and 'charge' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'dis' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for discharge that I've seen before include "Performance" , "Dismiss (from a job)" , "Fire (a gun); release from custody" , "unload" , "let go" .)