The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 3 letter word PALTRY SUM
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
P
A
L
T
R
Y
S
U
M
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.