Adult wasted pounds working with unknown adviser (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
agony aunt
'adviser' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'adult wasted pounds working with unknown' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'adult' could be 'a' (abbreviation) and 'a' is found in the answer.
'working' could be 'on' (e.g. a machine is working or on) and 'on' is found within the answer.
'unknown' could be 'y' (algebra) and 'y' is found in the answer.
'wasted' could be 'gaunt' (synonyms) and 'gaunt' is present in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for agony aunt that I've seen before include "Write to her for advice" , "Newspaper columnist who offers personal advice, like suffering relative" , "Columnist who advises on personal or romantic matters, like pained relative" , "Columnist dealing with readers' problems" , "Newspaper columnist who offers personal advice to readers" .)