Hardy hero, reduced fellow, receiving money for opinion (8)
I believe the answer is:
judgment
'opinion' is the definition.
(judgment is a kind of opinion)
'hardy hero reduced fellow receiving money' is the wordplay.
'hardy hero' becomes 'jude' (Thomas Hardy character Jude the Obscure).
'reduced' means to remove the last letter.
'fellow' becomes 'gent' (I've seen this before**).
'receiving' is an insertion indicator.
'money' becomes 'm' (abbreviation in economics).
'jude' with its last letter taken away is 'jud'.
'gent' enclosing 'm' is 'gment'.
'jud'+'gment'='JUDGMENT'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for judgment that I've seen before include "Decision" , "Discrimination" , "Appraisal" , "Ruling" .)