I mean, you CAN use it, you just need to pull it into your inventory and then equip it on your civilian gear instead... so it takes a little manual labor. Not a big problem if you only need it on civ gear when you're doing quests but certainly a pain in the butt if you're constantly having to switch back and forth.
It seems to be tied to a fact that civilian uses different set of equipment in general. It's just a minor nuisance, there are more important things to work on at this point.