Given that your pension is likely to be less than your salary, unless you know something that the rest of us don't, you will probably find that the best net-of-tax deal is to keep working as long as you can. (For sheer pleasure, however, you may prefer to leave as soon as you can, but that is not a tax-related decision!).
If, however, you just want to look at a single tax year, and decide when in that year to retire, the factors are likely to be these:
a) If you are in a defined-benefit pension scheme, and do not have maximum service with the employer, leaving at or near the end of the tax year will have the biggest beneficial effect on your pension, because you will have chalked up more service and therefore a bigger pension, year in and year out.
b) If you are in a defined-contribution scheme, the same probably applies, but the outcome will be dependent on the fluctuating value of the pension fund attributed to you on whatever day you choose to start drawing on it. The value of stockmarket holdings in your fund will be unpredictable until the very day, so it becomes guesswork. But any company contributions may be enough on their own to justify working to the end of the tax year in order to extract the most benefit from those employer contributions.
c) If your sole income (i.e. company pension but no taxable investment income) is £500 per month gross, or £6,000 p.a. gross, you will be a 0% taxpayer in the first full tax year in which you become a pensioner, with £4,000 of unused personal allowance out of the £10,000 allowance available to those under 65 in 2014-2015.
So if your wife is a taxpayer, and has taxable investment income of any significance it would be cost-effective for any interest-producing holdings to be in your name, not in hers (dividend income will not make any difference, since the tax credit cannot be reclaimed by non-taxpayers), - but neither you nor she should let the 'tax tail' wag the 'common-sense dog'.
d) If there is no pension difference to you whenever you retire, because you have full service already and the pension scheme rules state that you would get no extra credit for working further, you may like to consider going at the point in the tax year when gross salary received plus gross pension for the remaining months of the tax year when added together give a total amount of at least £10,000 so that you don't waste tax-free income of up to the £10,000 total for the tax year.
e) Retiring early prolongs lifespan in many cases if you have lots of interesting things to do in retirement.
f) Retiring early often reduces lifespan if you only sit around in retirement feeling bored, unless the job is stressful and stopping earlier is in itself felt to be a blessing!
g) If the company pension fund appears to be a fixed sum p.a. with no scope for joint-life pension or widow's benefit, or has other unsatisfactory or inadequate benefits for your personal circumstances, talk to the pension department about tailoring the options available to you; and/or see if by chance you can move your pension fund into a SIPP so that you can tailor the pension format and start date that suits you better than what the company offers (but this is a very complex subject, so get full information from the employer and expert independent advice before signing anything!!).
If your health is in any way capable of being treated as 'impaired' (because of disease, smoking, or whatever), a group scheme will not normally be able to give you a pension pays more per annum to reflect a statistically shorter expected lifespan - however a SIPP fund can be turned into an annuity that DOES take account of 'impaired life'.
Well, that's my quick three penny worth. Wait now for other comments, and then also, if you can, take professional advice.