UP to 200 elderly and vulnerable people are in line to have their home help reinstated following a city council U-turn.
A total of 141 people had seen their service reduced, while 60 had it scrapped altogether.
The council protected people classed as in "critical" need from the cuts but cut the hours for those rated in "substantial" need – the second highest priori
ty group.
But last month the council changed its mind after realising it had a bigger budget than first feared.
Now a further £2.9 million has been invested in services that help the frail and disabled to live at home.
This has led to calls for reassessments to be carried out immediately to ensure everyone is getting the level of support they are entitled to.
Councillor Lesley Hinds, who represents Inverleith, successfully persuaded officials to rethink scrapping the three hours of home help given to 63-year-old grandmother Anne Brown, who lives alone and is in a wheelchair after breaking her hip in a fall.
"I don't know how many more people would fall into the 'substantial' category," Cllr Hinds said.
"How many of them are going to read the council papers, find out there's been a change and get in touch with the department? Not many.
"There are a lot of people out there who do not realise the criteria has changed.
"No-one is contacting them, it is up to them to get in touch with the department and that's the wrong way round."
People with substantial needs require home help for day-to-day tasks such as cleaning, cooking and shopping.
Those with critical needs require home help for things like medication and severe mobility problems.
In many cases they have had their level of care increased, as 75 people receive more care following the council's review, with 101 having had no change.
Although, the council is not planning on calling people back for assessment following the U-turn, it does intend to phase in a four-weekly rolling assessment of all the elderly people who receive home care.
A council spokeswoman said: "In the last budget significant additional funding was allocated to home care. This will be spent on direct services benefiting more of those who need our help.
"Our home care staff deliver an essential service to some of the city's most vulnerable people, enabling them to lead the most independent life possible.
"All time the home care staff spend with clients is carefully assessed according to need and according to the tasks to be provided.
"We believe that it is important to be continuously seeking better ways of meeting the needs of service users, listening to them and learning from good practice in home care that happens elsewhere and we are currently in the process of a modernising programme.
"This will result in more effective home care and other services and will lead to improvements in the lives of our service users."
The full article contains 503 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
