As understood in activation policies, work refers to formal employment, while informal, non-standard work, including forms of unpaid work, does not receive recognition for its inclusion potential. Nevertheless, due to the increasing selectivity of the ordinary labour market, we have seen the development of alternative forms of insertion, especially designed for the hard-to-place unemployed. This study is a quantitative impact evaluation of one specific kind of non-conventional work, known as the secondary labour market, which consists of temporary employment programmes to be carried out in the public and non-profit sectors. Unlike most activation policies evaluations, the study focuses on the social effects of the secondary market on individual quality of life, measured by means of indicators of psychological, physical, social and material well-being. The analysis is not limited to simply estimating the average effects, but also provides indications regarding the heterogeneity of the impacts.