Appalling debt with us broken (6)
I believe the answer is:
busted
'broken' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'appalling debt with us' is the wordplay.
'appalling' is an anagram indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'with' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'debt' with letters rearranged gives 'bted'.
'bted' enclosing 'us' is 'BUSTED'.
(Other definitions for busted that I've seen before include "Broken; raided (US)" , "having knockers" , "Shattered" .)