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An analysis is made of beneficiaries of the regional minimum income scheme in Asturias consisting of measuring effects of different factors that affect exit from the scheme into employment. The fact that this needsbased scheme is potentially open-ended (while needs persist) allows considering this research an innovative analysis of the sensitivity of minimum income schemes to labour market participation and active labour market services. Results show that work attachment features of benefit recipients appear as leading exit factors, more important than education and active labour market policy (ALMP) services. These services in particular show questionable effects on employment exits, especially for men. Thus, human capital and work attachment may be more relevant than ALMP regarding exits into employment. Given that minimum income schemes have provided minimum safety nets for people not originally targeted by them, the research shows that these people tend to exit the scheme in a sort of "last-in-first-out" manner. This contravenes the vision of minimum income schemes as dead-end streets and underlines that, despite the small amounts of the cash benefits, these schemes were, and still are, a valuable source of temporary help for people with labour market attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]