A Pole in the money makes reparation (7)
I believe the answer is:
penance
'reparation' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a pole in the money' is the wordplay.
'pole' becomes 'n'.
'in the' is an insertion indicator.
'money' becomes 'pence' (I've seen this before**).
'a'+'n'='an'
'an' placed into 'pence' is 'PENANCE'.
'makes' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for penance that I've seen before include "Reparation" , "sacrament" , "Self-inflicted punishment for wrongdoing" , "Remorse" , "Act of contrition" .)