A payment covered by a friend of mother maybe (8)
I believe the answer is:
parental
'mother maybe' is the definition.
'parental' can be an answer for 'mother' (thesaurus). I'm unsure of the 'maybe' bit.
'a payment covered by a friend' is the wordplay.
'payment' becomes 'rent' (rent is a kind of payment).
'covered by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a friend' becomes 'pal' (pal can mean a friend).
'a'+'rent'='arent'
'arent' inserted within 'pal' is 'PARENTAL'.
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parental that I've seen before include "of father, perhaps" , "Of mother and/or father" , "of old man and woman" , "like mum and dad" , "of some older relatives" .)