Beginning to talk of payments for sweets (7)
I believe the answer is:
toffees
'for sweets' is the definition.
(toffee is a kind of sweet)
'beginning to talk of payments' is the wordplay.
'beginning to' suggests taking the first letters.
'payments' becomes 'fees' (payments for a service).
The first letter of 'talk' is 't'.
't'+'of'+'fees'='TOFFEES'
(Other definitions for toffees that I've seen before include "Caramels" , "Sweets" .)