This was caused by the Forefront Identity Manager Password Reset Client service not being started on the client machine.
To resolve the issue, start the Forefront Identity Manager Password Reset Client service. You can do this through one of the following options:
After starting the Forefront Identity Manager Password Reset Client service, clicking the link resulted in being prompted to authenticate using the QA gate questions. The error indicates that the problem is being unable to connect to the web service but it is actually a failure to connect to the Forefront Identity Manager Password Reset Client service.