Can I compensate for non-working yeast with baking powder in bread?
No, it is not worth trying baking powder. If your yeast is not working, it won't start working because you added baking powder, so you will get the same result as leaving out the yeast and using pure baking powder. Recipes meant for yeast cannot work properly with baking powder, so this is not a solution. You need a source for working yeast. 

You seem to have concluded that dry yeast never works, but this is not true. You must have happened upon a bad brand, or maybe even a bad batch from an otherwise OK brand. Dry yeast works very well, and is even lower risk than fresh yeast, because it is less sensitive to bad storage. Just try a different source of dry yeast.