Papa: Get Paid to Provide Help and Companionship for Seniors

Looking for a job that has few requirements, can offer regular income, and involves nothing more taxing than “light” housekeeping and running errands? Check out Papa.

What is Papa?

Papa works with employers, Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage plans to provide an array of household and wellness services. The site performs this mission by enlisting a cadre of freelance “Pals” willing to take 2 to 4 hour shifts, providing one or several services from a menu of available tasks.

These tasks include running errands, providing rides, watching pets, light cleaning, yard work, meal preparation, companionship and helping with basic technology tasks, such as downloading apps on a smart phone.

How it works for clients

The only way to access Papa services as a consumer is to be part of a health care plan that offers it. Members of these participating plans generally get up to 40 hours of Papa Pal services for free. If they want more, they pay an hourly fee.

How it works for freelance “Pals.”

Freelancers sign up to be “pals” via smart phone. The site requires you to provide some personal information, including your age, Driver’s License number and Social Security number. The site uses that information to conduct a detailed background check on you. Since the site’s main goal is to take care of potentially vulnerable seniors, anyone with a criminal past — or even serious driving violations — need not apply.

Outside of that, the only requirement is that you’re over 21, able to communicate in English, and drive an insured car that’s 2008 or newer.

Once approved, you’ll get notifications when someone in your area needs help. The notification shows what type of help is needed and for how many hours. You choose which assignments to accept, based on the type of assignment (i.e. cleaning, companionship, driving, walking or feeding a pet, etc.), as well as when and how long your help is needed.

Papa review (for freelancers):

Some “companionship” work sounds a little sketchy — the type of thing you wouldn’t want to tell your mother about.  That’s not true with Papa.

Papa is a personal wellness company that primarily focuses on seniors needing part-time assistance. This assistance might involve running errands, putting away groceries or dishes, making meals or reminding seniors to take their medications.

However, outside of providing a hand to help a senior up stairs, services that involve personal touch are strictly forbidden. You are not helping seniors with activities of daily living (like getting dressed, showered, or going to the toilet). Nor do you fill medicine boxes or provide any medical service.

You are simply there to help with household tasks that a senior or disabled individual might have trouble managing.

What you do

Specifically, the site says their assignments fall into these categories and descriptions:

• Companionship: Engage in conversations, watch movies, play board games, go for a walk, and more.
• Tech support: Help members download and access apps. Teach a member how to use video calls, or send an email.
• Errands & transportation: Drive a member to the doctor’s office, grocery store, bank, or anywhere they need to go.
• Light home tasks: Assist with laundry, light cleaning, meal prep, light organization, and more.
• Pets: Assist in walking or filling a water or food bowl for a member’s pet.
• Medication support: Remind the member to take their medication or assist with medication pick-up and drop-off.
• Child & parental support: Some visits involve assisting a member with their children. For example, you might help by watching a child at home or at a playground. But the member must always be present.

Assignments will show how long your help is needed and in which of these categories (or combination of categories). You choose what to accept and what to ignore.

Pay

Papa Pals are paid hourly at rates ranging from $13 to $19 per hour. (The $19 per hour rate is only in Massachusetts. Pals are paid $13 to $17 per hour in most states, with a few high-cost locations, such as California and New York, paying slightly better.

However, if you’re enlisted to drive a client around or do errands while using your car, you are also paid for mileage. In most states, the mileage rate is 45 cents per mile from the first mile driven. In a few states, you don’t get paid for the first 10 miles, but can claim mileage expenses after that.

Pals get 56 per mile to commute to assignments in 24 states, (where the hourly pay is closer to the minimum). But, you’re only paid for one way.

A final element of pay is made up of bonuses, which are paid after you take a set number of assignments. For instance, if you complete two different visits in one day, you qualify for a $10 daily bonus. If you complete six visits in a single week, you qualify for a $25 bonus.

Based on the bonus structure, it appears bonuses would raise the hourly pay by about $1 to $2 per hour or less.

Payment frequency

Hourly wages, mileage and any daily bonus, are paid the day following an assignment via direct deposit. Weekly bonuses are paid once a week on Wednesdays.

Mixed bag

While the work descriptions appear reasonable and the pay decent, freelancers give the app mixed reviews. That’s partly because clients are allowed to expand the nature of the visit, apparently without repercussions. And freelancers have little luck getting help from customer service when they need it.

Additionally, there are other apps that provide some similar services, but either pay better — or give the freelancer the right to set their own pay.

And, while Papa spells out a clear payment formula that always provides mileage reimbursements after a few miles, some freelancers maintain that the site doesn’t pay them for mileage. If you were enlisted to drive a significant distance for a client, mileage reimbursements are key.

Recommendations

We think this site offers decent opportunity and appears to have significant work in some cities. (You can sign up with Papa here.)

However, if the jobs you’re interested in involve providing care for seniors or pets, we’d suggest you also sign up with Care and Rover, respectively. Both sites give you the ability to set your own rate of pay and specify the type of care you provide.

Additionally, make sure you read your Papa contract carefully. It appears that the site’s FAQs may not be fully accurate. And your work arrangement with this company will be governed by the contract and terms that they send you, not just what’s posted on the site.

What their workers say (from Indeed)

Love meeting new people and hearing about them. I’ve made many friends and have become their preferred pal! Enjoy my work very much😊 makes me happy to see members appreciate me and the service. Hoping for a raise next year

I am a pal who physically assists papa’s. Its very rewarding even though some of the papas are very picky with how you clean. I wish the pay was $25 a hour. It would help with the driving gas and lack of bonuses. They need to pay for mileage in Utah like they do in Florida!

Unreasonable clients

Some of the clients ask for a lot. Like entire lawn care work for 5 hours. And the app lets them do that when it’s not a lawn care company. Their app is awful and it won’t let you make calls to confirm what the client wants help with. Customer service sucks and they can be rude. Stay away for this company.

I have worked close to three years for Papa and enjoy being with the people. Don’t mind helping them out with some chores but it has turned into total housekeeping because PAPA pal endorses such behavior. I don’t consider myself a maid but it has turned into that. I feel I am being used and had only 1 increase in pay.

Rotten customer service

When I have to report something on the phone representatives, the reps understand but the supervisors do not put my interest first. I explained to them already that the job is changing into housecleaning, not companionship. Papa takes the word of the member over me. Thank God this only happened a few times, but it was enough to make me quit.

I’ve worked with Papa Pal consistently for a year and a half and have met some amazing members. There is a ton of flexibility and the compensation is fast. The work itself is extremely diverse- cleaning, yard work, meal prep, rides, hanging out, etc. The reason I’m choosing to walk away from caregiving through Papa Pal is because the help desk and lack of communication. It is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get in touch with someone in the Papa call center. If there is a time or schedule change and you miss the call to confirm it, then good luck! There is ZERO over the phone support unless the call center calls you. 

Flexible

Usually you can make your work schedule 15 days in advance, but you can pick your work on the app in the same day. A lot of driving and service for the Papas members. You can help Papas in different ways, and you can select the visits that you want to do. There is not management. You are your own boss. 

I am a senior. So I can pick how often I work and also the locations. I can obtain steady clients and make new friends. If you don’t feel like working, don’t choose a client. Come back when you are ready. Pay is excellent and pay is direct deposit in a few days. I have no issues or complains and the company will work with you if you need them. All done by app!

Rewarding work

First, let me start by saying helping seniors and those with health challenges is very fulfilling and rewarding work. Many seniors verbalize how appreciative they are for your help and you can form meaningful relationships! I’ve worked with Papa about 1.5 years and started doing Papa as primary work in September when I saw that there was consistently an abundance of visits and bonuses offered. Some weeks, I could work 8-10 visits or more and make $800+ doing work that I liked.

Unfortunately, Papa has made several changes recently that make it hard to sustain yourself doing this (even part-time). The decision to drastically reduce bonuses from $45-75 to as low as $1 on visits was a poor choice in my opinion. Those bonuses allowed seniors who lived further away or had shorter visit hours to get help because the extra funds justified the driving and time. Now with the base pay of $17, I know members that are not getting the help because helpers can’t afford to drive an hour each way for a three hour visit for $58.

Also, Papa could do a better job at telling members explicitly what cleaning and organizing we do and don’t do. I’ve had several members who use the ‘light housekeeping’ as a free for all housekeeping, with one lady even asking me to clean her healthy adult son’s basement apartment. When I politely shared that I was there for her disabled mom’s benefit, she told me another pal had done it for her. This makes for some potentially awkward situations.

Problematic car requirement

I have a 2007 Dodge Caliber with 133,000 miles on it in great condition, and have taken several Papas to couple appointments. But you changed your policy in 2024 and I can no longer Papa. It’s going to hurt to my family losing income. And I thoroughly enjoyed my job. I can’t believe that I found a job I love and now they won’t let me work because my car is 1 year older than what they specify.

If I’m sitting in that person’s house for 2 hours, not driving them anywhere, then it shouldn’t matter and I should be able to go drive there and drive home has nothing to do with my caretaking abilities with my clients. My car is up on all its oil changes. The brakes are good. It’s a good running car. So I hope other people that are in the situation realize that it’s a bad mistake on Papa Pal’s part.