A way to be covered by pay for natural loss (7)
I believe the answer is:
wastage
'natural loss' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a way to be covered by pay' is the wordplay.
'way' becomes 'st'.
'to be covered by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pay' becomes 'wage' ('wage' can be a synonym of 'pay'**).
'a'+'st'='ast'
'ast' going within 'wage' is 'WASTAGE'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for wastage that I've seen before include "exhausting" , "Loss through careless use" , "Loss through decay" , "Useless spending" , "Unnecessary loss" .)