A new report published by the Education Policy Institute (EPI), funded by the Nuffield Foundation, explores the strengths and weaknesses of free school meals (FSM) and Pupil Premium (PP) as measures for identifying disadvantaged pupils in England. It finds significant differences between the number of children estimated to be living in poverty and those who are receiving FSM or PP. The report recommends that the government should conduct updated studies using linked cross-government data to find out how many eligible children are not claiming FSM or registered for PP. The government should expand the coverage of FSM eligibility, remove the current restrictions on FSM eligibility for pre-school children, increase the salary threshold for families, and provide sufficient funding. Moreover, the government should consider centrally automatically enrolling eligible children for FSM to ensure better coverage, especially for younger children. Auto-enrolment has also been recommended by the Education Select Committee. In addition, researchers and policymakers should consider ethnicity and language background alongside FSM and PP, for example when comparing the experiences and outcomes of FSM/PP children to their peers. This is because the underlying characteristics of groups of children registered for FSM/PP have changed over time and vary by place. As these factors are not stable within the groups, they may often explain to some extent apparent differences in outcomes according FSM/PP status.