Servant receiving a payment in background (9)
I believe the answer is:
parentage
'background' is the definition.
(parentage is part of someone's background)
'servant receiving a payment' is the wordplay.
'servant' becomes 'page' (a royal servant).
'receiving' indicates putting letters inside.
'payment' becomes 'rent' (rent is a kind of payment).
'a'+'rent'='arent'
'page' enclosing 'arent' is 'PARENTAGE'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for parentage that I've seen before include "Ancestors" , "child-minders" , "results from birth" , "Extraction, descent" , "Ancestry" .)