The ones to take a little money from a Poet Laureate (4)

I believe the answer is:

they

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'take a little money from a poet laureate' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'the ones' is the wordplay.
'ones' becomes 'y' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'the'+'y'='THEY'

'to' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for they that I've seen before include "Pronoun for more than one" , "Do -- Know It's Christmas (Band Aid)" , "People generally" , "Pronoun for people" , "Those people (vb. subject)" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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