Tackle receiving poor pay in intermediate period (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
gap year
'intermediate period' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.
'tackle receiving poor pay' is the wordplay.
'tackle' becomes 'gear' (I've seen this before).
'receiving' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'poor' indicates anagramming the letters.
'pay' anagrammed gives 'apy'.
'gear' placed around 'apy' is 'GAP YEAR'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gap year that I've seen before include "One's not studying now" , "Student's break before university" , "Time out before study" , "continuum of education now interrupted" , "Time taken between school and work" .)