My husband has a small construction company and he does a lot of grant work for house adaptation or disability bathrooms etc. The contract is obviously with the client and the grant is issued by the local authority to the client after the works are completed. This is usually in the region of 6 weeks after completion of the job.
Many of the clients are elderly and financially hard up so they cannot fund the job up front so in effect my husband funds the work and waits for the cheque to arrive and gets paid then. Amounts can vary from €3,000 to €35,000 coming initially from my husbands pocket / supplier accounts / overdrafts. He always pays his subcontractors when they have finished their part. Just today I was asking him whether he should consider asking them (his blocklayer, electrician, plumber etc.) whether they would like the work but that they need to wait until the payment cheque is issued.
He is not keen on doing this but I reckon if they don't have work on and are happy to do this, they will need the money just as much in six weeks time as now . It seems fair to me. Obviously much would depend on how much they trust the person proposing this. In our case they would have a long work history with my Husband and would know he always pays.
I don't know if he will take this route though.
A.