Temp totally disheartened as a victim of cuts? (8)
I believe the answer is:
casualty
'a victim of cuts?' is the definition.
(injured person)
'temp totally disheartened' is the wordplay.
'temp' becomes 'casual' (casual can mean a temporary worker).
'disheartened' means to remove the middle letters (the middle or heart is removed).
'totally' with its centre taken out is 'ty'.
'casual'+'ty'='CASUALTY'
'as' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for casualty that I've seen before include "TV hospital drama" , "Hospital department" , "Injured party" , "Person suffering in war or accident" , "As cut lay, it made one a victim" .)