Children are currently eligible for free school meals based on whether their parents receive certain benefits such as jobseeker's allowance or through child and working tax credits.
But with both being replaced by universal credit the government is looking to change the eligibility criteria for free school meals so that it applies to households with an income of less than £7,400 before benefits.
This eligibility criteria will be mirrored for the Early Years Pupil Premium, which gives additional funding to early years settings to boost the attainment of pupils from low-income families
Launching an eight-week public consultation on the plans, children's minister Robert Goodwill said the proposed changes mean an additional 50,000 pupils could be eligible for free school meals.
"A typical family earning around £7,400 per annum would, depending on their exact circumstances, have a total household income between £18,000 and £24,000 once benefits are taken into account," Goodwill said in a statement to the House of Commons.
"A threshold of £7,400 will increase the free school meals cohort by approximately five per cent once universal credit is fully rolled out and in steady state.
"This equates to approximately 50,000 additional pupils being eligible to receive a nutritious free school meal than currently."
Goodwill also pledged to protect pupils who are currently eligible but may lose out under the new rules.
However, the government has no plans to allow automatic enrolment for sign up for free school meals and pupil premium payments, which are worth around £1,000 for each pupil to schools.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has called for the government to rethink its stance on automatic registration, which it believes would be easy to administer and could help reduce social inequality by ensuring free school meals are accessed by all eligible children.
It said that, in the absence of auto-enrolment, 11 per cent of eligible children are missing out, with the proportion rising to around 30 per cent in some areas.
"The data already exists, it just needs to be shared with schools," said NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman.
"Automatically registering children for the pupil premium would put a serious dent in social inequality.
"Whilst we welcome today's consultation, it seems a missed opportunity for a simpler system for families and schools and we'd urge the government to take this easy and obvious step."
